The State of New Hampshire’s Family Involvement with the Child Outcomes Process

Cornerstone Project October 2004-September 2006

GSEG Grant

Cornerstone Project staff Director, Coordinator, Finance Administrator,

Administrative Assistant,TA contractors, Data Consultants, Evaluation Team, Subcommittees

Representation from the following agencies: Family Organizations:

PIC (NH PTI) NH Family Voices NH Connections NAMI NH Granite State Federation of Families for Children’s Mental

Health ECO, NECTAC, WestEd

Part B 619 & Part C

Cornerstone Subcommittee’s Family Outcomes

Long distance participants Infant Toddler Outcomes Preschool Outcomes Data TA resources –NECTAC & ECO

June 2006 OH MY! Child Outcome Data system limitations

NH’s plan of action

October 2006 ECO Center Saves the day! Kathleen Hebbeler and Lynn Kahn journey

to NH to assist FCESS directors and management team from the family outcomes subcommittee in creating a plan for NH’s COSF and data collection process.

Pilot programs begin

South Central

South Eastern

Western

March 2007 ECO project staff train programs not

participating in the pilot Entire state begins collecting child

outcomes.

NH’s guidelines in CO collection Outcomes to be measured:

Children have positive social relationships Children acquire and use knowledge and

skills Children take appropriate action to meet their

needs Data collected at entry and exit

Guidelines continued Child outcomes are collected on the model

form developed by ECO project. Providers/families are given a choice of using COSF with or without the numbers listed on the 7 point scale

Assessment tools used are the HELP and IDA

Guidelines continued Information from evaluations, on-going

assessment, IFSP development activities are used along with family and ESS input on the three outcomes.

Optional for families to fully participate Policy and procedure document created for ESS

providers. Suggestion to create a brochure that will assist in

explaining the process with families.

Families create Child Outcomes Brochure BDS asks

management staff of the family outcomes subcommittee to draft brochure that providers could use in explaining the child outcomes process

Draft reviewed by all stakeholders and ECO staff

Brochure is now used statewide

Entry level data Entry level data is collected within 6 weeks

of eligibility determination for Children who are at least 6 months of age Expected to be in the program for at least 6

months For children who are less than 6 months of

age entry level data will be collected when the child becomes 6 months of age.

Exit data For children exiting at age 3 yrs, exit data

is collected within 90 days of the child’s third birthday.

For children exiting prior to their 3rd birthday service coordinators are responsible for ensuring exit data is collected prior to the child’s departure from ESS.

Initial challenges Data collection system

Excel spreadsheet Entry and exit collection what about

progress? NHSEIS

Success Child Outcomes data collection possible

through NH’s NHSEIS.